Black-English Influences in the Writing of Third- and Sixth-Grade Black Students

Cronnell, Bruce

doi:10.1080/00220671.1984.10885529

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…This potential discrepancy between samples of spoken and written language corroborates previous findings regarding context-dependency of S-AAE forms. Specifically, previous research purports that students use AAE-specific forms differentially in their writing compared to their spoken language ( Cronnell, 1984 ; Ivy & Masterson, 2011 ). The AAE-specific forms observed to occur at high rates, such as zero form past tense – ed, reflected the past tense context of the prompt.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Variation in the Writing of African American Students: Factors Predicting Reading Achievement

Fitton

Johnson

Wood

et al. 2021

Am J Speech Lang Pathol

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Purpose This study aims to examine the predictive relation between measures obtained from African American students' written narrative language samples and reading achievement, as measured by standardized academic assessments. Method Written language samples were elicited from 207 African American students in Grades 1–8. The samples were examined for morphosyntactic variations from standardized written Generalized American English (GAE). These variations were categorized as either (a) specific to African American English (AAE) or (b) neutral across AAE and standardized written GAE (i.e., considered ungrammatical both in AAE and in standardized written GAE). Structural equation modeling was employed to then examine the predictive relation between the density of AAE-specific forms in students' writing and their performance on standardized assessments of literacy and reading vocabulary. This relation was examined while accounting for the density of dialect-neutral morphosyntactic forms, reported family income, age, and written sample length. Results The written samples were highly variable in terms of morphosyntax. Younger students and those from lower income homes tended to use AAE-specific forms at higher rates. However, the density of AAE-specific forms did not significantly predict standardized literacy scores or reading vocabulary after accounting for dialect-neutral variations, income, and sample length. Conclusions These results support the ongoing need to better understand the language, literacy, and overall academic development of students from all backgrounds. It may be essential to focus on dialect-neutral language forms (i.e., morphosyntactic forms that are consistent across both AAE and standardized written GAE) in written samples to maximize assessment validity across students who speak varying dialects of English. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16879558

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Variation in the Writing of African American Students: Factors Predicting Reading Achievement

Fitton

Johnson

Wood

et al. 2021

Am J Speech Lang Pathol

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“…Multiple educational researchers have warned against an approach to teaching writing that involves "correcting" a student's home language, and some have observed that increased risk taking and creativity may be associated with greater incidence of features that diverge from SWrE (Cronnell, 1984;Scott & Rogers, 1996;Smitherman, 2000;Weaver, 1982;Whiteman, 1981). Ladson-Billings (2002) recommended teaching revision and improvement of the written manuscript as a natural outgrowth of the motivation to communicate more effectively (not simply for correctness).…”

Section: Implications For Choices In Writing Instruction For African mentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Story Probes Written Across Third Grade by African American and European American Students in a Writing Lab Approach

Nelson¹

2010

Topics in Language Disorders

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Nickola Wolf Nelson, PhDPurpose: This was a comparative study of changes across a school year in multilevel language indicators, including African American English (AAE) features, in stories written by third-grade students participating in a writing lab approach to language instruction and intervention. Methods: Original stories written in September, January, and May by 18 African American and 15 European American students (4 with disabilities in each group) were transcribed, coded, and compared on measures of discourse-, sentence-, and word-level written language features, including rates of AAE. Results: Significant and similar increases were found for African American and European American students in story scores, total number of words, number of different words, and proportion of words spelled correctly. Racial group was a significant between-group factor only for AAE and for sentence correctness measures influenced directly by differences in AAE from standard written English. African American students produced significantly higher proportions of words coded as AAE than European American students in Probes 1 and 2 but not in Probe 3. Almost no associations were found between rates of AAE feature codes and independent discourse-and wordlevel measures. Discussion: Culturally and linguistically diverse third graders (with and without disabilities) participating in a strength-based writing lab approach make changes in probe stories at the discourse, sentence, and word levels that show them all to be acquiring new skills in written expression. The African American students appeared to be adding dialectal shifting proficiency to their repertoires.

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“…Teachers and language specialists, including speech-language pathologists, must be aware of cultural-linguistic influences on the development of written expression to understand typical development and use that information to identify students with diverse experiences who may require intervention. Much prior research on the writing of speakers of African American English (AAE) has focused on the influences of phonological and morphosyntactic features of AAE on students' written language (Cronnell, 1984;Green, 2002;Horton-Ikard & Pittman, 2010;Nelson, 2010;Rickford, 1999;Wolfram & SchillingEstes, 2005). As an alternative to such studies, Smitherman (2000) called for research that would address sociolinguistic components such as pragmatic elements and other discourse features.…”

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confidence: 99%

Pragmatic Features in Original Narratives Written by African American Students at Three Grade Levels

Kersting

Anderson

Newkirk-Turner

et al. 2015

Topics in Language Disorders

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African American English has a rich oral tradition, with identifiable features across all 5 systems of language-phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. This is an investigation of the extent to which pragmatic features of African American oral storytelling traditions are apparent in the written stories of African American students (n = 30) at fourth-, sixth-, and ninth-grade levels in an urban school district in the Midwest compared with stories written by 61 European American students in the same urban (n = 20) and a nearby rural school district (n = 41). Results showed that African American students use significantly more pragmatic features characteristic of the African American oral tradition than European American students. In particular, differences were found for the use of cultural references and parallelism. Grade level was significant for simple frequency counts of oral tradition features, but when the pragmatic codes were normalized for story length, the grade-level effect disappeared. These results add to prior research on cultural-linguistic influences on story writing that go beyond counts of morphosyntactic variation.

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Black-English Influences in the Writing of Third- and Sixth-Grade Black Students

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Language Variation in the Writing of African American Students: Factors Predicting Reading Achievement

Language Variation in the Writing of African American Students: Factors Predicting Reading Achievement

Changes in Story Probes Written Across Third Grade by African American and European American Students in a Writing Lab Approach

Pragmatic Features in Original Narratives Written by African American Students at Three Grade Levels

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